Suits And Ties Served A Treat
The Age
Saturday January 29, 2000
Peking duck crepes and sushi rolls, that's a menu favorite served up in the corporate boxes at the Australian Open. So is mineral water and the quick lunch.
Corporate entertaining at the tennis is changing with the times.
Not that it means corporate-box entertaining is any less popular. On the contrary, in an e-mail-driven world, where face-to-face contact in business is becoming harder and harder, the tennis remains a non-cyber networking reality.
Corporate entertaining is more popular than ever at this year's Australian Open, and attracts the biggest names in business. Coles Myer's chief executive, Dennis Eck, has a front-row seat, and other CEOs who have been spotted in recent days include AMP's Paul Batchelor and BHP's Paul Anderson.
Tennis Australia reports the number of corporate packages sold at Melbourne Park is up 10 per cent on last year. More than 1000 companies wine and dine their staff and customers during the two weeks. Not all are big corporations.
One company with a staff of four this year took out a corporate package for all its employees, which is an expensive staff-incentive program given that a gold corporate package for all 24 sessions at the tennis, including meals and parking, costs $2950 a seat.
The accounting firm KPMG is one of the companies that first booked a superbox when the Australian Open moved to Melbourne Park more than a decade ago.
It says the net worth of such investment is more valuable today, but it has noticed a change in superbox etiquette.
Today guests are more likely to leave early after lunch for the office. Ten years ago most of the guests would turn it into an all-day affair.
Doug Bartley, a partner at KPMG, says it's the timing of the Australian Open that makes it a much-sought-after event for business to market.
``In January, at the start of the working year, it's important to meet with clients before it gets too hectic - although these days even January is busy - and re-establish relationships," he said.
``It's a communication opportunity. It all comes back to the pressure of work today. How often do business associates get these days to sit down and have a solid talk about things? They can do that at the tennis."
Mr Bartley says it is a fallacy to think that it is only the CEOs who ever make it to the superboxes. Most of the networking, he says, is done with the chief financial officers and the divisional bosses, the contacts at the coalface. Such is the interest in a day at the tennis that KPMG this year has attracted a client from Britain.
``Tennis is deep in the psyche of Australia, and the Australian Open is the number one sporting event on the calender," he says.
Occasionally all of the networking in the superboxes can get a little carried away. At this year's event more than one superbox is believed to have been told to keep the noise down from tournament officials.
Sometimes, the general public in front of the superboxes are the beneficiary of a stray icecream or drink passed out of the box. The trickle-down effect does work, at least at the tennis.
© 2000 The Age